Alta, UT 10/21/07

First, the pre-report. We're getting ready to head out now. Temp at the top of Collins is a balmy 13 degrees, and the current webcams show folks out already (see below). I'll report in once we get back.

Day 2: The best October turns of my life. Period.

Pulling in the Wildcat parking lot at 10 am today looked like a midweek mid-winter day. There had to be 150-200 cars in the parking lot...the place was a madhouse! Tracks were already being laid everywhere. We had 10 people in our crew: Skidog, Bob Dangerous, Dale, Pat, Jon, Graz, Graz's friend Mars, Dale and Pat's son Brad, a friend of Brad's, and yours truly. Skinning up was a long lemming line.

We headed for the top of Wildcat. Once regrouping there and deskinning the group split into two -- Bobby D, Dale, Pat and I headed down through Wildcat trees while the others opted to lap the upper face.

It was bottomless. Literally. Bob made the wisecrack, "This is more snow than Park City will see all winter!" Our first pitch was tracked up yet fluffy, but once we rounded the corner into Wildcat trees it was untracked the whole way to the parking lot. Amazing!! One heluva preseason day -- this ain't Rocktober. I hit only one minor rock on a traverse - I hit nothing while actually skiing.

1,300 feet of vert. I shot a helmet cam video the whole way, but regrettably the Oregon Scientific cam I'm trying really can't handle exposure on snow. Add that to the fact that I shot 3/4 of it rotated 90 degrees by mistake, and the fact that it was aimed too high, and regrettably I don't have any usable video footage to share. I've got to get a good lipstick cam for the DV camcorder.

Total strangers were exhanging high fives in the parking lot. Amazing.

Graz just emailed me a few of his pics:

What an AMAZING October ski day. The snow felt like mid-season Wasatch bottomless blower pow. 3 runs of that and now I have my ear to ear grin for weeks to come.

Graz":2bp9dgy1 said:

3 runs of that and now I have my ear to ear grin for weeks to come.

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One run of that and I'll have something else happening to me for at least a week, but I can't describe it in detail for this is a family-friendly forum. :wink:

Question for you guys now that you've seen the conditions up at Alta first hand. If Alta were to open tomorrow do you think it would be 100% open and what is your best estimate as to what the base is up there?

Hope this weeks warm weather doesn't trash all the good snow up there.

mbaydala":1xs7md1c said:

If Alta were to open tomorrow do you think it would be 100% open and what is your best estimate as to what the base is up there?

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100%? No. The wind did its usual job of moving snow from here and putting it there. Some spots, too, would surely get chewed up by the traffic from lifts. That said, there's a heck of a lot more snow there now than there was on opening day last year.

mbaydala":1xs7md1c said:

Hope this weeks warm weather doesn't trash all the good snow up there.

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Hear, hear! But it is October, after all, so there will naturally be snow loss here and there.

Unbelievable! We'll be heading out to CO to make a few turns at Loveland/A-Basin! It almost seems ridiculous when Utah has all the snow and we could be skiing there. Of course I'm not sure I'm up to hiking for turns. We'll sure be visiting Utah when the lifts open - any chance they'll open early (like next week???!!!!???)

skibum4ever":3s9n8zr4 said:

any chance they'll open early (like next week???!!!!???)

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Not really. It would take another big dump. Most resorts have opening dates fixed by insurance, staffing, etc. Alta sticks hard to its scheduled opening/closing dates. Brighton has opened early in the past, as has Snowbird. Snowbird has more snow in Peruvian Gulch than in Gad Valley right now, but it still looks more boney than Alta did today.

Skidog scored lots of face time in a Fox 13 story on tonight's news. Click here to watch the video on Fox 13 Utah's website.

snowguns are preparing for opening day

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Superfluous at Alta, as in many seasons. Even us lightweight flatlanders would suck it up and do the hike when it's that good.

Based upon past track record I would expect Brighton to be open next weekend, unless an imminent meltdown is forecasted. Snowbird is much tougher to cover at low elevation than Alta or Brighton. I think it would take massive dumps like 3 years ago to advance Snowbird's opening date.

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snowguns are preparing for opening day
Superfluous at Alta

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Good point, Why would Alta waste dime one on snowmaking..

Nothing's a sure bet. (Let's see what happens with this week's warm, dry weather.) Alta makes snow in limited locations - the base area, a couple of top-to-bottom intermediate cruisers, and the low-elevation novice terrain in Albion Basin - to ensure adequate coverage to handle opening day and the holiday masses. It's not entirely superfluous, but understand that Easterners would view its utilization as minimal compared to what they're used to.

All Utah ski areas use snowmaking save for Powder Mountain and possibly Beaver Mountain, although I'm not certain about the latter.

Ya couldn't wait a few weeks to post this? We're dying out here in the East...

yak":3tdrlw07 said:

Ya couldn't wait a few weeks to post this?

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Of course not - that would reduce or eliminate the gloat value. :wink:

Ya couldn't wait a few weeks to post this? We're dying out here in the East...

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Could be worse. It's fire season here in SoCal, if any of you have been watching the news